This billboard absorbs air pollutants.

I was in Manila last weekend to attend a political management workshop. Flying in from Bohol and arriving at rush hour, I regretted having told the cab driver to pass thru EDSA going to Sikatuna Village in Quezon City. Half-dosing, I amused myself with the gigantic lit-billboards along the way, going: hot, not, hot, hot, HOT, not, not, NOT, not. 


But then came this nearly all-green billboard with: “This billboard absorbs air pollutants” – and by unlikely green advertiser, too, the ever red Coke and with an unlikely collaboration with WWF. The ad sure piqued my curiosity. It got me thinking. The cab moved quicker than I thought, I could barely inspect the foliage assembled around the Coke bottle shape, if they were real plants and if they, indeed, absorbed air pollutants. 


But I was truly impressed enough to Google the details of the ad and true enough, as per its press release, the plants are real plants that absorb real pollutants. Will this make me patronize Coke products more? No. But, for sure, Coca Cola Philippine get some respect. I like the ad, it’s full of oxymoron’s (a green billboard, Coca Cola and WWF, green Coke), but it’s a think piece. And if its claims deliver? – hot!

APM @ PHINMA

Malou Tiquia's (of Publicus Asia) bit -- at the 2nd cluster of the Academy for Political Management conducted by the  Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for young political activists -- was super insightful. The lady could pack a punch. And literally, too. 

Three three-day training at the PHINMA Training Center in Tagaytay is only the second weekend of about 5 clusters (I missed the first one!), schedule monthly (with one or two skipped months here and there)

The food was alright, not great, but what's really disturbing is that we were all assign one room apiece, but rooms with freakin' twin beds! (The rates are the same, the say, so why not?) But what about saving energy and being green? Oh, well.

I'd walk a thousand miles for the passage of the RH Bill

I really would, if I could.

The Purple Ribbon Campaign will be launched in Bohol today. I'm unable to attend, as I'm still travelling, but I'm there, alright. I am. Aja!

Cama-cama-cama-camotes

Coming to Camotes, I had little expectations. It was after all a business trip, errr, rather, field work. What struck me really here's that it'g got zero public utility transport -- no tricycles, no jeepneys, no multicabs -- only the semi-legal single motorcycle taxi aka habal-habal whose tarrifs are absurdly expensive. How? Why? I kept asking myself. They got fairly good roads. It's a quaint small island group of four: Pacijan (San Francisco town), Poro (Poro and Tudela towns), Ponson (Pilar town) and Tulang (an island barangay of San Francisco). Everywhere should just be minutes away if there were at least PUJs plying about like, say, Camiguin. Oh well, it works for them. So why not? But then for visitors, this could especially be a hurdle. I mean, meyn, P150/person for a 30-minute habal-habal ride towards the beautiful white sand beach stretch of Barangay Santiago in San Francisco!

Santiago's beautiful, of course, white sand beach, beautiful azure waters, friendly people, but there's one more catch -- by the beach, there' zero to no mobile telecom signal.

Ah well, you can't have it all.

The San Francisco Town Hall Square is a free Wi-Fi zone.
Meanwhile, its most popular tourist barangays barely have telecom signal. 

Udlot's not sprouting its last leaves, no not yet.

Paul's text to all was rather disturbing. It was an invitation to the student exhibition cum culmination program of the Nene Lungay's 2011 Udlot Summer Art Workshop. It was bidding, urgent, calling on us to attend Udlot's last exhibit, this summer workshop, we are told, will be Udlot's last. Oh no. 

It's a delight to see the amazing amazing works of the young artists, and to watch Ma'am Nene still at it -- but then thinking that this is the last Udlot -- bitter sweet.

I'm writing more about this at Bohol Republic.

Baghdad Express

For me, between country & self, yes.

Pista @ Marla's Family Farm Home in Tubigon

Feasted on the scrumptious Cebu-style lechon. Made in Panglao - gobbled up in Tubigon.

And ah yeah, saw a balimbing aka carambola tree for the first time. (Iba ra man ako pirme makit-an gud.) What a delight, eating a fruit fresh from the tree. We had one of the boys climb up the tree to pick some for us. A good match for the lechon, too!

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First Time: Nausea after running.

Earlier, at the CPG Sports Complex.

And I thought I was going running. I ended up hurling. Almost.

Nausea after running. That's what. I still got it, nearly 5 hours after the run. So, of course, I googled it. It happens.Nausea after running. And may have been caused by over-running or dehydration. Sipping water, or better, Gatorade, whilst running should help. That I'd do. Next time.

Well, that is, if I could again draw up the strength to run again. Ah basta.

Next time.

Stash from Oz!

Gel Ink Illustrations

We Are Forests Series (Gel Ink on Paper/PostProcessed, 2011, Liza Macalandag)

I was furiously pushing gel pens through paper starting the previous weekend, trying to create some sort of illustrated advocacy material carrying youth-targeted sustainable forest management principles. This, after about a month past due, my tutor-marked assignment (TMA) for my ENRM 222 course (Socio-Cultural Perspective on the Environment) for my Master of Development Communication program at the UP Open University. (Too much explanation, that.) Anyhow, after barely making it to the Final Exams in UP Cebu last month and with all that's gone down since then (the Baji Exhibit, that bungled up Interior Renovation Project Management work), ELA stuff, and life, in general), and seeing that I had breathing space (actually, none, since I got other abandoned works waiting to be reincarnated) for about a week, I jumped into working on this long overdue project, even at the risk of it not being admissible any longer.

What I thought to be an overnighter job, took about 4 days to finish. And that's not even finished finish. If I had my way, I wouldn't submit this work at this stage because it's not coherent as yet and needs more panels/pages (even a redo) but that would entail 2 more days and there's just no time. And so I polished a truly (shallow) series of illustrated banners that could have been a compact graphic novella of sorts and submitted them in the TMA dropbox (online). The online classrooms are practically empty and just a few seconds after I submitted my work for marking, it struck me that this was probably for naught, this work that I did. It's just too late already, I think. But I push away that thought. And then shamelessly relish the idea that I did that - for zero points, zero points at all.

I need coffee and gel ink, lots of gel ink.

The young couldn't bring down the house just yet.

One Flew Over the Bird's Nest (Graphic Art, 2008, Liza Macalandag)


It could get really embarrassing, and frustrating - to be young, hopeful, foolish.

At the United Architects of the Philippines - Bohol Chapter GMM today, elections was the priority agenda. We've been wanting too much to be involved in the organization as we've found management real crappy or at least direction-less and purposeless, quite frankly. But then election time, we learn that there's some screwed up rule that prevents newer architects from getting elected into certain positions. So there goes our chance of affecting change.

So we proceed to Plan B, then.